Halloween Countdown: The 1 day that changed everything

It's hard to imagine, but forty-three years ago on Halloween night, the Boy Who Lived...lived. Lord Voldemort, on the information given to him by Peter Pettigrew, arrived at a small house in Godric's Hollow and murdered two of the three Potters, On the final day of this year's Halloween Countdown, I'd like to talk about what it might have been like for the rest of the world in the wake of that fateful Halloween.

"Them Muggles are coming."

We know from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that "the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily...[and that] Most of the cottage was still standing...but the right side of the top floor had been blown apart." While the war memorial in Godric's Hollow has different effects on Muggles, it isn't clear if anyone in the village can see the ruins of the Potters' residence.

We get something of an explanation in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, when Hagrid comes looking for the family in the ruins of the house. In an act of mourning, he lays the first flowers of remembrance on the floor before saying that he needs to leave:

"I can't wait with yeh. Them Muggles are coming, yeh see, with their flashing blues and they won't 'preciate a big lummox like me, would they?"

- Rubeus Hagrid

As he rescues Harry from the wreckage, the audience sees the flashing blue lights. The Fidelius Charm breaking means that there is evidence of an explosion in the Muggle world and the police have been called to the scene of the tragedy. This is an intriguing point for me. Hagrid has left with Harry by this point, but did the police arrive before other members of the magical community did? Did the Ministry of Magic have to erase the murder case from police records and Obliviate the responding officers? Are there Muggles in Godric's Hollow who remember a sound of a terrible explosion and wonder if they imagined it? I have a private theory that there are members of the community who can't explain why they feel sad every time they pass this one cottage.

"I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!"

I have a real sympathy for Hagrid, as he plays such a part in the events of the twenty-four hours that followed James and Lily's murders. The timeline of things is slightly muddled across the books, but we know that shortly after the scene depicted above, Hagrid met the closest thing Harry had to family left in the world. As he tells it in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, "Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride." Sirius is assumed by Hagrid to be just another person who had heard the news and it obviously had a profound effect on him--"White an' shakin', he was."

After the Muggles, the Marauders are the next characters I'd like to discuss. Sirius recounts the chain of events vividly in "The Servant of Lord Voldemort." With sunken eyes "suddenly overbright," Harry's godfather explains that he went to Peter's hiding place on Halloween night to check on him and "set out for [Harry's] parents' house straightaway." While Hagrid learned the news from Dumbledore, Sirius discovered the terrible consequences of his faith in his friends firsthand. Of course he was white and shaking.

It's something of a mercy that the full moon for October 1981 was on October 13. Remus Lupin was not in a transformed form on the night that his friends died and as far as we know, he was not delayed in learning the news. It is a cruel mercy because, while we don't know his circumstances at the time, we know that he was not with his closest friends. Wormtail was in hiding, Padfoot didn't have time to inform Lupin of what he suspected, and Prongs had been killed.

According to the timeline on the Harry Potter Lexicon, either on November 1 or 2, the confrontation between Sirius and Peter. Wormtail loudly framed Sirius and faked his own death by blowing apart a street full of Muggles. Sirius, laughing, was arrested and sent to Azkaban without a trial on the orders of Barty Crouch.

The Order of the Phoenix

We know very little about how those fighting Voldemort found out about the Potters' deaths. Mad-Eye Moody gives a detailed accounting of other Order members' deaths in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and given his involvement in the Auror division at the time, it seems likely that he was a primary source of intelligence for Dumbledore and his loyal followers. Molly Weasley's brothers Gideon and Fabian Prewett were casualties earlier that year and Lily mentions in her 1981 thank-you note to Sirius that she cried all night when she heard about the McKinnons.

Hagrid was first on the scene, but says that he found out from Dumbledore that something had happened, though the information seems to have been incomplete. In Cursed Child, he mentions that "They told me, but - I were hoping for better." McGonagall hears rumors of the attack on the Potters and arrives in Privet Drive sometime before Vernon Dursley leaves for work and stays there until Dumbledore arrives. Halloween was on a Saturday that year and this explains why two Hogwarts professors and the Keeper of the Keys could take time away from the school. Such a significant event would be the sort of thing that brought Ministry employees to the office on weekends, which Molly Weasley remembered as being part of the first war in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Much as it does years later on the night of the Third Task, the Order of the Phoenix mobilized on Dumbledore's orders. I imagine there were people on guard for other well-known targets in case this was not the last act of brutality of that weekend. Moody was undoubtedly practicing "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" And Hagrid lay low for most of the day before bringing a sleeping Harry to Number Four.

The rest of the wizarding world

This is the most simply documented demographic that we know of. There is no mention of people reacting on October 31, but here are a few reactions from November 1 that are documented: shooting stars in Kent, rumors flying around, owls traveling in the open during daylight, magic users dressing peculiarly and discussing wizarding matters around Muggles, and groups gathering in secret to toast Harry Potter.

The contents of the rumors must have centered around the reported fall of Voldemort. Many people might not have heard about the Potters at first, The owls might have gone between wizarding households, but it's probable that the Ministry of Magic was overwhelmed by many pecks of owls looking for information. And, as Dumbledore reported, there were many celebrations.

We'll be back for Halloween suggestions, but we couldn't let the season pass without remembering the Potters' sacrifices. Thank you for joining us on this Halloween Countdown and may you have a Happy Halloween.